napari repository map#

This page gives contributors a high-level map of the repositories in the napari GitHub organization and related projects.

The status labels are approximate and should be read as contributor guidance:

Active: regular feature work or frequent cross-repository coordination. We welcome contributors to these repositories to help drive forward new features and improvements. Contributions to these repositories are likely to be more visible, but may also require more coordination with the core team and other contributors.
Maintenance: stable and useful; bug fixes, documentation updates, and dependency work are usually the most common changes. Contributions within this scope will be attended to in a timely manner, while larger feature contributions may require more discussion and coordination to ensure they fit with the current direction and scope of the project.
Early Development: new or still changing quickly. Contributions are especially welcome and can help shape the direction of these projects. These repositories may be fast changing, but can be easier to contribute to since they have fewer established conventions and patterns.
Backlog: still relevant, but not a current priority for the core team. We encourage contributions to these repos to bring them up to speed and bring functionality to match the original vision for the project.

Core application and core plugins#

These are the repositories that are most central to the core napari experience. See Important upstream dependencies for libraries that are fundamental to napari functionality but are developed outside of the napari organization.

Repo	Description	Status
napari	Main viewer application and the central repo for layers, events, settings, rendering integration, and releases.	Active
napari-console	In-viewer Python console plugin.	Maintenance
napari-svg	SVG export plugin for napari layers.	Backlog
napari-metadata	Metadata editing plugin for layers; included with bundled installs and `napari[all]`.	Active
bermuda	Rust-backed spatial algorithms library used by napari for fast shape triangulation; included with `napari[all]`.	Maintenance

Documentation, websites, and communication#

These repos shape how users and contributors discover napari, learn about it, and interact with project resources online. These repositories are a great place to contribute, even if you don’t have experience with Python, since they mostly involve writing and design.

Core website#

These repos build and publish the main napari.org site.

Repo	Description	Status
docs	Main narrative documentation sources for napari.org, excluding most autogenerated API docs.	Active
napari-sphinx-theme	Shared Sphinx theme and site UI used across napari websites.	Active
napari.github.io	Website content and generated assets used to publish napari/docs on napari.org.	Maintenance
resources	Shared graphics, copy, and brand resources for the project.	Maintenance

Additional websites and pages#

Sibling sites and community-facing pages published alongside the main docs.

Repo	Description	Status
workshops	Current workshop materials and publishing infrastructure for napari workshops.	Active
island-dispatch	Blog for napari news, announcements, and community updates.	Active
weather-report	Public analytics dashboard for project and ecosystem metrics.	Maintenance
meeting-notes	Notes from recurring project meetings.	Active
surveys	Analysis workflows for napari survey data.	Active

Plugin system#

The plugin ecosystem is built around the npe2 plugin engine and manifest specification. The repositories below are focused on supporting the plugin ecosystem, whether through core plugin infrastructure or development resources.

Repo	Description	Status
npe2	Plugin manifest and engine v2 for the napari plugin ecosystem.	Active
napari-plugin-manager	Graphical plugin installer and management UI inside the viewer.	Active
napari-plugin-template	Main template for creating new napari plugins.	Active
npe2api	API documentation and schema reference site for the npe2 plugin manifest system.	Active
hub-lite	Static implementation of the napari plugin hub website.	Active
napari-plugin-checks	Checks and helper tooling for validating napari plugins.	Backlog

Specialized plugins#

These repos are useful to contributors working on particular workflows or newer features, but they are not as central as the core application and docs repos.

Repo	Description	Status
napari-animation	Plugin for building and exporting animations from viewer state.	Active
napari-geojson	GeoJSON support for reading and writing geographic annotation data in napari.	Active
napari-graph	Graph data structures and algorithms for visualization and editing workflows.	Backlog
napari-tiff	TIFF reader and writer plugin maintained by the napari team.	Active
midi-app-controller	MIDI controller integration for driving the napari UI.	Maintenance
update-checker	Viewer extension for checking whether a bundled napari app has an available update.	Backlog

Release, packaging, and ecosystem tooling#

These repos support packaging, automation, and other project-level operations.

Repo	Description	Status
packaging	Build and packaging infrastructure for bundled installers and app distribution.	Maintenance
napari-release-tools	Scripts and automation used to streamline the release process.	Active
shared-workflows	Reusable GitHub Actions workflows shared across napari repositories.	Active
pins	Version constraints and compatibility pins for the napari plugin ecosystem.	Backlog
constructor-manager	Tooling related to managing constructor-based app bundles.	Backlog

Important upstream dependencies#

The repositories below are not in the napari GitHub organization, but they are important friends of napari that are contributed to by members of the napari community.

vispy/vispy: rendering backend and canvas infrastructure used by napari.

The following pyapp-kit projects are developed in close coordination with napari’s needs:

pyapp-kit/magicgui: automatic widget generation from Python type hints, widely used in plugins and some napari UI.
pyapp-kit/superqt: extended Qt widgets used by napari and related plugins.
pyapp-kit/app-model: action and command model used by modern napari UI infrastructure; originally developed in the napari organization.
pyapp-kit/psygnal: typed event and signal system used across the pyapp-kit and napari ecosystem; its evented containers and models were spun out of code originally written for napari.